Cooking ranges of the proximity ventilated type are well known in the prior art. Ranges of this type may include an oven and can be of either the free-standing or drop-in variety, or can be of the type where the range does not include an oven and provides surface cooking units only, these being set in an opening cut into the counter area of a conventional stack-on type kitchen cabinet. The surface units are separate from the oven component and may be installed in island or penninsular cabinet arrangements. A ventilated, countertop unit of the type referred to is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,444,805. Conventionally, the apparatus incloses an array of surface units carried on an upper housing which extends into the underlying carbinet. Means forming a ventilating air plenum depends from the top plate and a motor driven fan or blower wheel moves air from a surface-located intake, through the plenum, and delivers it to a discharge duct leading to the outdoors.
The concept of the present invention envisions use of the apparatus described above but incorporates, additionally, an electronic air cleaner or filter of the well-known electrostatic precipatator type so that the filtered air may be discharged back into the kitchen environs and need not be vented to the exterior of the house. Use of an electrostatic precipatator type filter in a ventilated domestic range is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,260,189 but the structure is a free standing range and the filtered air is recirculated within the range, not discharged in the room in which the range is located and is not adapted for countertop installation.
The preferred embodiment of the present invention can be installed in a standard, stack-on cabinet without any modification of the cabinet itself by cutting away of a portion of the countertop to accommodate the surface units of the range. The other embodiments of the invention require only modification of the cabinet doors to provide a discharge opening. The primary feature of the present invention, therefore, is the provision of a ventilated countertop range, having an electronic filter component which can be installed in a standard, stack-on type kitchen cabinet with minimum alteration of the cabinet.